A two-year grant awarded to Hope College will help about 40 young children attend early childhood enrichment classes this summer.

The $30,000 grant is from the PNC Foundation as part of Grow Up Great, its multi-year, $350 million, bilingual program in early childhood education.

The grant will provide school readiness activities for preschoolers this summer and next. The program is primarily for children who attend Head Start and Great Start Readiness programs. Another goal of the program is to prevent summertime learning loss.

“What we know is that children lose a lot of what they learn during the school year over the summer if they don’t have opportunities to engage in activities,” said Pat Griffin, assistant professor of education at Hope College.

Lessons will focus on math, science, art and literacy. Students will read the book “Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z” and take a trip to the Holland Farmers Market. The story “The Very Lonely Firefly” will explore friendship as well as a chance to learn about insects. Opposites will be the focus of the bilingual story “Buenos Dias, Buenas Noches,” while activities based on the book “How Many, How Many, How Many” will be related to early math concepts.

And the preschoolers will be able to keep the books they have been using so they can continue learning at home. “We’re going to be sending children home with the five main titles that we’ll be using,” Griffin said. "We're going to be doing a lot of really fun activities."

Guided by Griffin, Hope education students, most of whom are seniors, will serve as the primary teachers for the program. The program begins Monday and runs through early August. It will take place in two sections of 16 half days Monday through Thursday. A morning session will run from 9-11:30 a.m. and an afternoon session will run from 12:30-3 p.m.

Classes will be in the lower level of the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center, 100 E. Eighth Street.

A few openings are still available for the program. To sign up or for more information, contact Griffin at griffin@hope.edu.